14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is a veritable magnet for litigation, with new lawsuits against the company popping up virtually every week. Now, Apple is being charged with violating a patent on encoding video to disk and being sued once again over the iPhone battery.
MedioStream, a California-based company, has filed a seven-page suit against Apple, Acer, Dell and Gateway charging them with treading on a 2006 patent for a "method and system for direct recording of video information onto a disk medium." Apple's entire Mac product line, from the Mac Pro down to the mini, is accused of being in violation of the patent. The patent itself describes a simple process of accepting uncompress video, applying the user's preferred resizing and compression methods and generating a resulting digital video stream that fits a particular TV standard. Interestingly enough, while major hardware manufacturers are being sued, the software that is needed in order to perform the mentioned encoding isn't even mentioned in the complaint. According to MedioStream's attorneys, the sale of any of the mentioned computers has caused damage to their client's business and a jury trial is needed to bar the PC builders from further infringement as well as to demand compensation for perceived damages.
The iPhone battery also seems a good choice for litigation, as a third lawsuit emerges. Mr. and Mrs. Stiener are suing Apple over the iPhone battery, alleging that both Apple and AT&T knowingly withheld information about the iPhone's battery replacement costs until after the June 29th launch. In what seems to be an emerging trend, the plaintiffs cite unverified claims that the iPhone battery will only last for 300 cycles before exhausting completely. According to the lawsuit, Apple and AT&T are guilty of breaching both good faith and the California Commercial Code, which demands that manufacturers in the state honestly reflect how their products will perform in real-world conditions. The nine page filing is written by the law firms Hoffman & Lazear as well as Folkenflik & McGerity, which were also responsible for a similar suit in mid-August.